Aromatic hydrocarbons are important basic raw materials for the petrochemical industry, and widely used in many fields such as polyester industry, chemical fiber industry, and rubber industry. Benzene, toluene and xylene are three most widely used aromatic hydrocarbons, and among others, p-xylene has the most extensive demand and application. At present, the domestic and abroad production of aromatic hydrocarbons mainly relies on the non-renewable fossil resources. However, since the fossil resources have a limited reserve and are non-renewable, the production cost for aromatic hydrocarbons are becoming higher. In addition, the continuous development and utilization of fossil resources leads to a large amount of greenhouse gas to be emitted, and a series of the resulting environmental problems are becoming more serious. Therefore, it will be meaningful and important to develop a technique of producing aromatic hydrocarbon (especially xylene) from renewable resources.
Recently, there is a certain progress in the study on the production of aromatic hydrocarbons through the biomass route. CN102482177A discloses a technique of producing p-xylene by reacting 2,5-dimethylfuran and ethylene in the presence of a catalyst. However, this technique has a problem of low xylene selectivity and high reaction pressure, which results in increasing operation complexity and risk factor. Moreover, the use of ethylene causes the consumption of fossil resource, and accordingly this technique is not completely based on the biomass route.